A Holistic Approach to Digitalisation and Robotics in the Nuclear Back-End

Abstract

Abstract Decommissioning and waste management are essential parts of the lifecycle of nuclear and other industrial sites/facilities to consider in terms of sustainability, as it often involves risks to workers or the environment. Robots can offer a solution by performing tasks in hazardous environments, handling contaminated materials, and performing repetitive and monotonous tasks. Making robots more autonomous through integration with AI-enabled digital twins is essential for a safe and efficient digitalization of the back-end. Through simulation and analysis of the performance of robots and facilities under various conditions, safe and sustainable robot deployments can be ensured. HADRON is a holistic approach that aims to optimize working processes while keeping humans away from dangerous, dull, and dirty tasks. This approach has been the core of the RoboDECOM project where heterogeneous mobile robots, integrated with digital and physics modeling technologies, were utilized in a pilot study to carry out a set of subtasks representative of the decommissioning process. This study presents findings related to HADRON from the RoboDECOM project, several EURATOM projects like SHARE (providing an innovation roadmap based on a large scale survey of innovation needs and opportunities in the nuclear back-end), PREDIS (specifically about a digital decision making platform for waste predisposal activities) and HARPERS (specifically about harmonizing safety standards and regulations with outlook into impacts of application of digital and robotic systems in the nuclear) or PLEIADES (providing one interface for digital tools and allow an exchange of the data between them).